Reservation Dog Days

LeMond Arrive

Most of the first week of August, I rode down to the first Pull-Out of the Nat'l Park to Mummy Cave, Massacre Cave, which is a 30 mile round-trip, two hour fast ride that gets me down there and back in a little less than two hours.  The Titanium LeMond is a great bike for this, Gentle Reader.  I am happy to report that I'm averaging 15 MPH, which for me I think is pretty good.

I'm climbing strong, and I feel that my cadence is steady.  I joked to Le Tigre, my Old College Chum from Tucson Days, that I didn't even feel tired after these dashes!  Sleepy - but not tired.

I think this has been good for me - I mean, quick fast rides all out.  The benefit is that I have lost weight.  Weight loss is key here - but the one thing that was a side effect (because I'm not that smart about things) is that I found myself feeling faint, or about to blackout when I would stand up, or bend over to tie my shoe, etc.  I reported this to my wife, and she said to maybe get it checked out..

Actually back in late July, I went to a community event here at The College - a fun run and walk.  While there, the local Health Clinic folks were giving away free blood pressure checks.  Since they were not busy, I sat down to have mine done.  I had been wondering what was up with stuff like that since I'd moved up here - how would the altitude and my weight loss affect things?

Well, they were right away perplexed.  My blood pressure seemed high.  "Did you just run over here?  Were you walking up stairs?"  I told them I had a bit of White Coat Syndrome (Medical people make you nervous and your blood pressure is up a bit) so they asked me to come back after I chilled out and walked around a bit, which I did.

So I go back and they take my blood pressure again - 132 over 90, down from 140 over 91 - but my pulse rate was 59.  This was noticed by the Dietitian, and we started up a conversation - she has seen me riding out on the road a few times...  I told her that my diet was pretty basic : no processed foods, no milk, no cheese...  she said I probably wasn't getting enough protein for one, with the amount of cycling, and basically I wasn't eating enough.  She said she'd help me out.

I started tracking my food intake with an App called MyFitnessPal, and it showed that most of the time I eat just under 1500 calories a day, but I'm burning sometime double that when I go for a ride, riding at 7200 feet and up and down mountains.

I've been trying to eat a bit more protein and I have to say I feel better - the App was breaking things down like this: 55 percent Carbs, 35 percent Fat, and 10 percent Protein.  The carbs I eat are not from processed food at all.  Time and experts will tell.

She did tell me that I had a heart-rate of a top athlete, but maybe she was exaggerating.

Windy and cloudy days to ride

Friday evening I was coming home up the mountain, and I saw something in the road - some kind of animal.  At first I thought it was a deer or maybe a calf?  But as I got closer it was a dog.  Cars were coming quick over the hill both ways and they had to suddenly slow down so they wouldn't smush him.  It was pretty sad really - I'm sure the dog fell out the back of a truck.  He must have just fallen out as he was still "fresh."  When I felt it was safe (lots of speeders) I dragged the poor pup to the side of the road.

People around here drive very fast.  But they always slow down when they see me or give me plenty of room which I appreciate.  I suppose if a horse or cow walks in front of you, which they are prone to do sometimes, you are lucky if you don't hit them.

But dogs have it tough out here on the Rez.  They're low man on the totem poll (no pun intended) and my friends that do have dogs, when they show them any kind of kindness, the dogs are ecstatic!  I sure miss Callie - she was like a member of the family, and really one of my best friends.  Out here, dogs are like a door knob - a tool, a thing that has a use.  Often people don't take good care of their dogs and they begin to starve - so they leave and go and kill sheep.  They join up with packs of other dogs to try and survive - but mostly they are killed or they die.

A dog can't tell you that he's hungry or sick - you have to be responsible and take care of their needs.  Like the ponies - they look at you, and they want to be a friend - they're perplexed because they may have know human kindness, but they for certain know our indifference - and cruelty.

Cheers!  Bruce